As I was driving down the street recently, I noticed a swarm of vultures eating and picking away at whatever roadkill happened to meet its fate.
At that moment, I thought to myself, we need fewer vultures.
I do not mean the animal. The animal is part of the “circle of life” as they say.
We need to remove the vulturous people from our lives.
We need to be sure we are not surrounding ourselves with vultures.
You know a vulture when you see one.
They always appear when you are down to make you feel worse.
They wait for you to fail to tell you, “I told you so.”
They hover around you long enough until you fall.
They anxiously wait for you to become more helpless.
They do not encourage, they discourage.
Their strength lies in making you believe you are worthless.
Their strength lies in making you believe you cannot achieve success.
Their strength always lies in your weakness.
Vultures can be anyone.
They can be your family.
They can be your friends.
They can be that woman that lives two doors down from you.
Make sure you identify the vultures in your life.
Vultures often work in packs.
Vultures frequently need “other vultures” to validate their behavior.
They prefer to share the scraps and the sorrow than witness someone succeed.
Misery loves company as they say.
This is why winners often have few friends. Once you make it to the top, a select few want to see you stay there.
Vultures place themselves high above everyone else.
They do this because they like to look down upon others.
They are looking for scraps.
They are looking for you to fail.
They get their kicks from those who stay down.
They need you to falter to feed their ego.
Their survival is dependent on your failure.
So rise up.
Rise up because you are not scraps.
Rise up because your failures do not determine your worth.
Each time you fall, rise up.
Each time you are faltering, catch yourself.
Each time you see a vulture, remember you are an eagle.
Rise up and stay up.
